EAST RUTHERFORD - Odell Beckham Jr. is living in two football worlds right now and his current place with the New York Giants has very little to do with his spectacular past. Admittedly, it's incredibly difficult to separate the two. John Harbaugh told us that, and so has Beckham, but with a trust that the Giants were ready to celebrate OBJ while giving Odell 2.0 a chance to make this team and author what would be quite the next chapter in a storybook left incomplete seven years ago. When debating whether the Giants should have signed Beckham on June 1, the most common prediction made from many of those outside his inner circle and biggest fans inside the organization was that his 33-year-old body - essentially two years out of the NFL - would never survive a John Harbaugh training camp.
Yet Beckham is healthy through 15 days of the most grueling summer practices the Giants have had in more than a decade, more confident than he has been in a while to believe he belongs here and has enough juice to stick around and make an impact. Beckham will play his first game in a Giants uniform inside MetLife Stadium on Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Vikings. The exhibition won't count in the standings, but Beckham is well aware that he has to make every snap count in order to complete his comeback and make this team. He's wearing No. 3 now because another wide receiver also fighting for a roster spot still has his more familiar No. 13, stuck in his college number that would suit him just fine, if not for the fact that one of the Giants' franchise players and defensive cornerstones already dons it and has no reason to give it up. Something about Beckham always connected with the kids, mostly those who heard stories from their parents and grandparents of the good old days of Giants football. When the franchise was indeed the bully of the NFC East, just like the one Harbaugh has promised to build, with the brash coach from North Jersey who did things his way as Bill Parcells led Big Blue to not one, but two Super Bowls.
Young fans of this current generation - those who were in diapers or not even born when OBJ made The Catch, those the Giants were losing to the Chiefs and the Eagles, and too many others, the winners as they have been doing all this losing - are now being introduced themselves to one of the most recognizable players the Giants have ever had. They could only watch his Giants highlights on YouTube for years before finally getting a chance to witness Beckham in person for nearly two weeks down at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and they were loving it. The OBJ phenomenon caught on first in the Big Apple, then the NFL and ultimately around the world. Expect more of the same Saturday when Beckham runs through the tunnel and takes the field as the player most will be talking about afterward no matter what happens with just about everybody else. The iconic tousled blonde hair that inspired many barber shop requests worldwide is gone, and Beckham's a father now to Zydn, born days after his Dad won the Super Bowl. The 4-year-old got to visit practice Thursday, meeting Beckham's new teammates on his old team, many for the first time. "He's looked good," Harbaugh said of Beckham. "He's in shape. He's taking every rep he's supposed to take in practice. He's getting stronger. I feel like he's getting stronger every day. He's in a good place. He will play and I'm looking forward to seeing him play." And here's the thing about that: a bunch of Beckham's current Giants teammates were the ages of those young fans who lined the fences at The Greenbrier early in camp cheering him on back when his flair for the dramatic and elite game-breaking ability made him one of the most popular yet polarizing players in the NFL. Rookie cornerback Colton Hood had the locker at The Greenbrier sandwiched between tight end Isaiah Likely and Beckham, and he spoke glowingly about learning from having to cover both on the practice field. There's no denying the awe that still permeates the locker room with Beckham as part of it. "Especially being that 12-year-old kid, watching Odell on [Sunday] night catch that ball with one hand, him having the locker right next to mine, it's surreal," Hood said. "It's definitely been really fun and incredible being next to that guy." On the day Beckham signed with the Giants, running back Cam Skattebo took photos of his locker with his cell phone, just to capture the emotion he was feeling getting the chance to be on the same team as someone he admired. With the Ravens and Dolphins (2024), Beckham showed only glimpses of his past greatness before not playing at all last season. There are always going to be detractors when it comes to Beckham, and he brought a lot of that upon himself when he was younger. He made mistakes out of immaturity and ego, but truth be told, at the heart of everything, Beckham was frustrated with losing and desperately wanted to win as a Giant. The book on Beckham as a Giant was supposed to be closed, and by both sides. That's no longer the case, and this next chapter has been fun to watch. When Beckham left the Giants, traded away by a previous regime in 2019, a return for one of the most popular yet polarizing playmakers in franchise history seemed improbable at best. In many ways, this was a leap of faith. The Giants have never doubted Beckham's competitive spirit, however, and Harbaugh can appreciate the humility for a player that comes with all that water under the bridge in this organization, especially since he coached him in Baltimore for the 2023 season. Beckham will ultimately retire a Giant and take his place as the face of a franchise's missing generation, one that had some special moments even with all the losing. The popularity of this current Giants generation is certainly building, and with Harbaugh on the sideline, the promise of winning is real. For as long as this lasts for Beckham - right now there is no reason to think it is over by any stretch - he will get the chance to excite many fans who never had the chance to cheer him and fall in love the first time around. "Odell's gonna bring a ton of energy. He loves this game and plays it with passion," Giants wide receivers coach Chad Hall said. "He's always asking me questions, first about the offense and then about how he's doing, how he can get better. He wants me to coach him hard, wants me to tell him what he's doing right, wrong, everything. This is his first game in about two years, and he's excited about it. You know he's gonna come out and make some plays." For the Giants, and for Odell Beckham Jr., this is about something far greater: making the most of every play he gets, even those in a game that does not count, in order for this story to get the new beginning so many want. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Odell Beckham Jr.'s quest to make every play count in game that doesn't